zondag 28 november 2010

Slow Cooking

After yesterday's slow run I had a day sawing wood for the stove on the boat and making a big cast iron pot of food. Inspired by Chanou's blog I made some photos of the cooking process.
I don't 'do' recipes but here's a vague description of how it was put together. Stuff chicken with a mixture of bread, mushrooms, wine, Indonesian boemboe and some peanut and coconut mix stuff that was in the cupboard. (Mix together till mushy.) Wrestle stringy bit over back legs again to keep the filling in. Roast chicken in olive oil in the pan till it's browned more or less all round. Chuck in some more wine so that there's a layer of liquid on the bottom of the pan. Find the right way to balance pan on stove so that it's simmering rather than boiling furiously. (This involves bits or wire meshing and metal, you may well have a simpler method involving some sort of a temperature dial.)

Go away and saw some more wood/read book. Open lid and peer at miraculously cooking chicken occasionally. Turn once or twice if you feel the need to dO something. Add sliced potatoes round the edges. Stare at flames for a while. Read some more. Add chunks of courgettes and smear the rest of the stuffing that didn't fit inside chicken over the top.









Go away for a run to investigate beaver building progress. Add mushrooms. Look for big enough plate to put chicken on. Discover that no such thing is to be found on the boat. Add wee tomatoes. Prise bits of tender free-range, maize-fed chicken off the bones. Listen to enthusiastic noises. (Get home, make blog, wonder why some photos are turned to 90 degrees but not be able to get bothered enough about it to change it...)

maandag 15 november 2010

My First Bento

I've always admired the bento boxes one of the boekgrrls regularly makes up. On Saturday she returned a book I'd lent her and she'd made me a bento of my very own.


I've just been to her blog and found a post describing exactly what was in this bento. The spicy nuts were wonderful, well, it all was really. I ate it in the bath I had after my 3 and a half hour run in the rain yesterday. Luxury.

zaterdag 6 november 2010

Joep the Sniffer Dog


Joep was very interested in one corner of the big grey cover that I put over the couch for him. When Sproet was here it was folded up and under my desk for him to lie on and obviously still had his scent on it. After he'd had a thorough inspection of it he seemed satisfied that his predecessor was no threat and settled down for a snooze.

maandag 1 november 2010

More Art in Zeeland













Het Parade Paardje
















Hanneke, in her new role in life as patron of the arts, bought a bronze sculpture in a local gallery when I was visiting this weekend.